This invention relates to vacuum fuses and, more particularly, to a vacuum fuse encapsulated in a protective and support body made of electrical insulating material.
Electrical installations such as underground distribution systems have grown in popularity and also in size and complexity. With this growth has come an increased demand for sectionalizing equipment. Current limiting fuses, oil fuse cutouts, fused load interrupters and the like have been used but such equipment suffers from various drawbacks such as cost and limited current carrying and interrupting capacity. A co-pending application of Michael E. Arthur, Harvey W. Mikulecky and John W. Ranheim was concerned with these problems and proposed a vacuum fuse construction well suited to use in electrical installations of this type. That application is entitled "Vacuum Fuse", was filed on Apr. 25, 1974, received Ser. No. 464,103 and is assigned to the assignee of this application. The invention of this application is an extension of the fuse structure disclosed and claimed in that co-pending application but is not limited to use with that fuse structure.